Harper and Midwest Kind tours, gigs and happenings. Join us on our musical journey around this amazing planet of ours!

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Harper,s Blog, March 2009

Hey Everyone,

Spring is definitely on the way. We had a pretty rough winter in Michigan, so its nice to get some warmer temperatures. February was a month of several new clubs. Midwest Kind & I had the pleasure of performing at the Jammin Java in Vienna, Virginia. This is a great listening room with a great concert vibe. We did a fundraiser for the Virginia Music Adventures which is a musical organization that tours young musicians all around the world. Jeff Cummins does an amazing job of providing this unique opportunity to so many young up & coming musicians. JM Randalls & Blue 5 also in Virginia were also great shows. We also did a show at the Lakeview Lodge in Lawrenceville , Pennsylvania. I suggested to Dexter the owner of the Lakeview to put on a festival in August. The views from the lodge over looking a large lake are spectacular and would be the perfect spot for a summer festival. Bobbi gave Dexter a few phone numbers of some of our good musician friends and within half an hour , Dexter had the whole lineup booked for Sunday August 23. So make sure you mark your calendars, because this will be a great day.

Our shows at Tullys, The Dinosaur BBQs & the Lafayette Tap Room were a lot of fun as per usual. We performed at The Thunderbird Café in Pittsburgh, another new club for us. The Thunderbird Café is a really nice club with great sound and a relaxed atmosphere- we definitely plan to hit this club again before the end of the year. A new Michigan club for us was the The Livery in Benton Harbor. This is an excellent micro brewery. The beer is just superb!!!!! Plus a great listening room- another good find for us. The last week of February was spent at the Carter Middle School in Clio, Michigan. Bobbi, Marc & I taught classroom didgeridoo, and didgeridoo painting to the band students of the school. We also did two shows in the gymnasium for the whole school the next day with the whole band. It was a trip. I ended up on two Television stations plus several stories in the local papers. I think we were a hit!!!

Our show at the Kalamazoo State Theatre in Michigan was incredible. Such a beautiful building with ornate furnishings, large balcony and seating for about 500 plus. It was part of the Budwieser Blues series and it was very cool to be invited to perform. Rubes in Flint, Michigan was also a packed house. The first week of March we began our annual tour to the West Coast. We hit BBs, in St Louis & Cartoons in Springfield , Missouri along the way. That weekend we did a house warming party for our dear friends Richard & Michelle Sukup in Hico , Texas. They have a stunning hacienda style house on 75 acres. We had a wild weekend of horse riding & shooting. Richard had two large horse trailers of 8 horses brought in for the Saturday and on Sunday we had an incredible day of shooting targets and clay pigeons. Don’t worry no critters were hurt. It was the complete western experience. We wore cowboy hats & boots and roasted steaks out on the open fire while listening to the coyotes howl. What a weekend!

March will see us heading to Colorado, Utah, Washington, California, Vancouver, Canada and Arizona. We hope to see all our West Coast fans in the next few weeks.